2006年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-Stories from Sept. 11: Wives, Daughters,

And it's time again for StoryCorps, we've been hearing from this oral history project as it crisscrosses the country. In New York city, it's gathering¹ interviews with families and friends who lost loved ones at the World Trade Center. StoryCorps wants to collect at least one recording² for each of the nearly 3000 lives lost on September 11th. Here Monique Ferrer speaks about Michael Trinidad.

When I met Michael, I was 14 years old. And I knew that he was gonna be my boyfriend. We got married when I was 19, and we were both kids we really didn't know what next, you know, get married and now what? When we were divorced³ I remembered the kids telling me that their father confided⁴ in them with a secret, and they didn't wanna tell me, and I quote, what's the secret? And they say, "Well, daddy still loves you, but he doesn't want us to tell you. 'And I said, well, I know, and I love him too. But Mummy and Daddy are gone their separate ways but we'll always be a family, we'll always be your mom and dad. On 911, I remembered getting up to take my daughter, she had a doctor's appointment, so my daughter was home. At 9:04, I got a phone call, and it was Michael, and he was calling from the 103rd floor. And the first thing that he said was "I am calling to say goodbye." And I said, "Why? Where are you going?" And he said, "Well, I'm in the building that was just hit by a plane." He just wanted to tell me how much he loved the children, and he says, you know, I also wanna tell you that I always loved you. And I said I know, the kids told me. And I am remarried, so I asked my husband to get on the phone, and I, I thought maybe my husband could talk him into finding⁵ an exit. And when my husband got on the phone, he asked my husband if he would be my children's father, and my husband said, you're gonna be coming home, you're gonna be their dad, and I, I'm their dad too. And he's like I don't think I'm gonna make it. And, my daughter was there and she saw me becoming a little hysterical⁶ and I didn't know whether to put her on, 'cause I didn't know how he would react. He thought she was at school. It just really breaks my heart that he's not here for them. It's like the only thing on his mind was to tell the kids that he loved them. And I tell the kids this, every day, everything you do, just think about your dad. And the thing is that my two children look just like him, and they talk like him, and they joke like him. So it's like he's there, you know, I see him in them every day and as much as he used to drive me crazy. He was my family and my best friend.

That's Monique Ferrer remembering Michael Trinidad. These 911 stories will eventually be kept at the World Trade Center Memorial Museum, and all StoryCorps tapes are archived at the Library of Congress⁷. You can schedule your interview at NPR.org.

Major funding for StoryCorps comes from the cooperation for public broadcasting.
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crisscross
1
[intransitive and transitive] to make a pattern of straight lines that cross each other
Railway lines crisscross the countryside.
2
[transitive] to travel many times from one side of an area to another
They spent the next two years crisscrossing the country by bus.

1 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 divorced   

adj.离婚的；分开的；不相干的；脱离的v.与…离婚(divorce的过去式和过去分词)；分离；与某人离婚，判某人离婚

参考例句：

• Apparently they are getting divorced soon. 看样子，他们很快就要离婚。
• Many divorced men remarry and have second families. 许多离婚的男子再婚组成了新的家庭。

4 confided   

v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等）

参考例句：

• She confided all her secrets to her best friend. 她向她最要好的朋友倾吐了自己所有的秘密。
• He confided to me that he had spent five years in prison. 他私下向我透露，他蹲过五年监狱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 finding   

n.发现，发现物；调查的结果

参考例句：

• The finding makes some sense.该发现具有一定的意义。
• That's an encouraging finding.这是一个鼓舞人心的发现。

6 hysterical   

adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的

参考例句：

• He is hysterical at the sight of the photo.他一看到那张照片就异常激动。
• His hysterical laughter made everybody stunned.他那歇斯底里的笑声使所有的人不知所措。

7 Congress   

n.(代表)大会；(C-:美国等国的)国会，议会

参考例句：

• There were some days to wait before the Congress.大会的召开还有几天时间。
• After 18 years in Congress,he intented to return to private life.在国会供职18年后，他打算告老还乡。